Days of our Lives' Mary Beth Evans (Kayla Brady) is officially back on contract with the show on which she began in 1986, and she couldn't be more thrilled.

"I am back on contract, working like crazy and loving the stories I am playing," she posted to her blog, www.plankblog.com.

DAYS' recent Daytime Emmy win for Outstanding Daytime Drama as well as the Emmy win for the actress' web series, The Bay, inspired her to reflect on her acting career. "As I stood in the role of 'belle of the ball 2015,' in the mix of winners, I couldn't help thinking about how life ebbs and flows," she explains. "How we're up, and then we're down (sometimes down too long). And how we always have to reinvent and recommit, recommit, recommit! My mother-in-law called to congratulate me the following day and we reminisced about the time, not that many years ago, when I talked about what I would do next. I was hardly working in my soap job -- in fact, for only the second time in 29 years, I hadn't even made the quota of income to provide health insurance for my family. I remember feeling so anxious all the time. I am a worker bee by nature, it's just who I am and I just can't take the lulls. So, I got moving. I had blasts of ambition where I'd audition for a play, contact a new agent or sign up for an acting class. I started reading periodicals that inspired me. Anything that would get me fired up and feeling productive (and better about myself). It's during times like those that I take leaps of faith into the unknown."

The actress also discusses her recent work on DAYS, which she says brought her a roller coaster of emotions. "I faced a similar situation when I first went back to Days of our Lives in 2010. I was working in the family pub, and I would have days when all I would say was, 'here is your to go order,'" she recalls. "At first I felt a bit humiliated and asked myself, 'how did it get to this?' Then I realized that I was lucky to have the job at all, and instead decided that I'd be the VERY best background player there ever was! I rocked that pretend bar -- marrying condiments, folding napkins, wiping down the counters. I hung in there with a smile on my face and an improved attitude, and eventually things improved. Now, here we are four, five years later [and] it has all changed again. I am back on contract, working like crazy and loving the stories I am playing. It is crazy how it turned around."